If you're interested in Cezanne, than Susan Sidlauskas's sometimes rather dense Cezanne’s Other: The Portraits of Hortense (2009) might be for you. In a detailed analysis of Cezanne's portraits of his wife she seeks to rescue Hortense from the derision of art historians, but overall this is also really good art history. In the end she offers a compelling account of Cezanne's practice through an analysis of this sub-group of work.
Interesting image from the #Catacomb of Marcus and Marcellianus of Moses or Peter striking the rock between two kanephoroi. Kanephoroi were unmarried women who led processions in ancient Greece carrying baskets containing grain offerings and the knife for slaughtering the sacrificial bull.
When Patrick Bringley's older brother died at 27, his grief prompted him to change his job & work at the Met in NY. His account of his 10 years there, All the Beauty in the World: A Museum Guard’s Adventures in Life, Loss & Art (2023) is an elegiac exploration of that loss, parenthood & mostly how being a guard in a museum can (re)shape your view of art. While not weighty, its a delightful little book which often raises a smile.
The Virgin Mary enthroned with the Christ child in her lap and flanked by four angels. She wears a veiled mantle, or maphorion, royal purple in color. A small white cross is woven into her veil.
S. Apollinare Nuovo, #Ravenna, early 6th cent. (partially restored)
Five artworks will be removed from public view at the Kunsthaus Zurich museum in Switzerland in order to investigate whether they were looted by Nazis during World War II. The paintings are by Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Courbet and Toulouse-Lautrec, and come from the Bührle Foundation, which has been working with a provenance researcher for many years to determine the ownership history of the collection. Here's more from NPR.
Voici 2 très beaux #dessins récemment acquis par les #ArchivesDeLyon : il s'agit des décors peints de 2 des 4 façades de la cour intérieure de l'ancien collège de la Trinité, actuel lycée Ampère à #lyon.
Les dessins sont attribués à Pierre-Paul Sevin (1646-1710) et datent de 1662-1663.
Ils complètent un dessin acheté en 2005 : il n'en manque donc plus qu'un pour faire le tour de la cour !
In Radiant: The Life & Line of Keith Haring (2024), Brad Gooch presents a compelling account of Haring's life & work with a strong emphasis on the public artist & his positive/supportive relationship with young people via such public art. Not shying away from Haring's sometime difficult personal life, this well-judged & highly detailed (but never boring) bio will become the standard work on the artist. Really excellent!
So my entry in the @neilhimself Folio Society contest didn't make the cut as a finalist 😢 It's disappointing, but I gave it my best shot and am very happy with what I created ☠️ 🖤
I might still turn it into an art print for my Etsy shop with a portion of funds raised going to charity, like I did with the bookmark art I also did for 'The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains'. If I do I will post about it here later on
Tremor, by Teju Cole.
You are a photographer and academic (or maybe you are the reader? Hard to tell) from Africa, but also of the West in some ways, who is wondering if art is an artifact or alive (or both? Maybe neither?).
3 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈. @bookstodon#bookstodon#reading#art#photography#race
This amazing graphic novel is a perfect blend of new style and good storytelling!
Panchaud uses dots for his characters, and they really make the reading experience come alive. The story (a sad little boy fights for his happiness) is not so new, but the telling of it is with a lot of excitement.
Die Farbe der Dinge / The Color of Things/ La couleur des choses/ De kleur van Dingen
by Martin Panchaud
"an impressive achievement, covers a wide range..strongly recommended."- Paul Joannides, Cambridge U
"...beautifully shot, illuminating on the painter’s relationships w/ contemporary artists, his studio & on his relations with clients." - Jane Stevenson, SRF, U of Oxford
Hugh Eakin' highly readable Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America (2022), focusses on the campaign firstly by John Quinn, then Alfred Barr (MOMA) to raise Picasso's profile in the USA in the first half of C20th & is an accessible account of the art worlds of New York & Paris from 1900-1945. Its perhaps a little more journalistic than analytical but relates a fascinating story well, even if it needed more illustrations.